A wireless access point (AP or WAP) connects one or more wireless client devices to a local area network (LAN) or another network. A Wi-Fi client device (e.g., as defined by IEEE 802.11) goes through a setup process to associate/connect with a Wi-Fi AP. This setup process typically utilizes an input and display interface typical of a full-feature client device. For example, the setup process typically includes the client device scanning for AP's within range, displaying AP's found within range of the client device, receiving user selection of a displayed AP, receiving/transmitting a network key or password (if required by the AP) entered by the user via an input interface, and establishing a connection to the AP. If the network key is incorrect, an error message is displayed to the user. As used herein, a full-feature device refers to a device including an input interface and a display interface, which facilitate at least a portion of the above-described setup process. Exemplary full-feature devices include personal computers, smartphones, and tablets.
In contrast, a limited user interface (UI) device lacks one or both of the input interface and display interface. Due to the lack of the display and input interface components to perform network setup described above, limited UI devices cannot easily connect to an AP because no mechanism exists to display setup information to and receive setup information from a user (such as displaying AP names and a prompt for a security key and receiving selection of an AP name and entry of a security key). Current attempts to simplify Wi-Fi setup, such as Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), either require knowing and entering a PIN, or pressing buttons on the client device and access point at the same time, or both, while other attempts send information to the client device without encryption, exposing the Wi-Fi network to snooping devices.
Additionally, AP's may also be set up with their AP name/identifier (also referred to as the Basic Service Set ID—BSSID or SSID) to be hidden. When a client device scans for a list of available AP's, that list will not include the hidden AP name. If an AP name cannot be discovered by a client device, it is harder for malicious clients to mount some security attacks. Additionally, as more and more devices are enabled to broadcast an AP name, the list of devices appearing within the results of a scan of nearby AP devices becomes longer. This, in turn, makes it more difficult for a user to find a given device name within a list of results from the AP scan. As a result, administrators may choose to have AP names be hidden to reduce “noise” in AP scan results. The use of a hidden AP name, however, includes receiving manual user input (e.g., via a virtual or physical keyboard) of the AP name rather than the selection of a displayed discovered AP name.